A new way for podcasters to finally make money with their podcasts

So you love building your podcast, recording the episodes, and distributing them to the popular podcast platforms like iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud and Stitcher. Your episodes are going out every single week and people are joining in, rating your podcast 5 stars, and leaving comments. It’s great. You have a captive audience and you feel successful that your podcast will be one of the top podcasts on iTunes. However, you are getting to that point that ultimately everyone wants to accomplish: making money, earning revenue on advertisements, and finding some way of monetizing your podcast.

When Is It The Right Time To Start Monetizing Your Podcast?

At some point, you will want to make money with your podcast. Every podcaster we talk to on our podcast network and our LinkedIn group wants to earn money and most of them do not see the point in moving on without some kind of financial success for their hard work. Remember that producing a podcast is not a quick task. You still have to decided the content of each episode including its title, keep your audience engaged with little retention and record it, edit it, and do some post production work. The average amount of time it takes to produce one podcast episode is anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on how professional you want your podcast episode to be. Being professional keeps your audience engaged, but also takes a lot of work and dedication. Eventually, without some kind of monetization, podcasters start to be burned out. The money and revenue keeps us going.

How Can Podcasters Easily Make Money With Their Podcasts?

The most popular way of making money with your podcast is by playing 30 to 60 second-audio advertisements. Ads and paid memberships on the internet are still the #1 way to make money, but most podcasts are free, so getting paid to play commercials is the best way. You can easily find advertisers with audio commercials who are looking for an audience like your own. You can reach out to small and medium businesses who match your content and email them about your opportunity to their products or services in front of your audience. For example, a travel agency can advertise on podcasts that feature travel. You can also use a marketplace where advertisers can search for podcasts like your own and make yours available. Think of your podcast like a television series that plays episodes, just like a typical podcast. In between the middle and end of your episode, several commercials can play.

Use a marketplace like the new podcast commercial and sponsor exchange from the World Podcast Network

In January 2021, we are releasing a brand new podcast commercial exchange where podcasters can look for paid advertisers and sponsors. A new marketplace on our podcast network will allow businesses to upload audio commercials between 30 to 60 seconds, the typical amount for traditional television and radio commercials. Podcasters will have the opportunity to preview the audio commercial and decide if they want to play it on their shows for their audience. Advertisers will also be able to select the specific category of podcast in order to play their commercials. For example, a new medical service can have their audio commercials played on health podcasts.

A simple interface will be available for both podcasters and advertisers

The new interface will simply be a list of commercials in MP3 format on a regular web-based audio player. They will be organized by the following:

number of seconds
category
type of commercial such as plain voiceover or voiceover with music
file format such as MP3, WAV, or OGG (all supported audio formats)

The interface will include a filter where podcasters can find exactly the format they want and think is perfect for their exact podcast. When a commercial is found that can be included, the podcaster will be able to apply for to play that commercial for paid revenue. The advertiser will then be allowed to accept or reject the podcast. This allows for everyone to work together as a perfect match.

Applying For The Commercial

When podcasters apply, they will need to be transparent with the advertiser so the advertiser can make an informed decision whether to accept or reject the podcast. Some of the information that the podcaster will enter will be:

Web address to any of their platforms such as Spotify, iTunes, SoundCloud, BuzzSprout, Anchor.FM, etc
Audience size
A brief description of the podcast

Since only podcasts that are already listed on the World Podcast Network with premium subscriptions will be eligible, we will also have additional information that will automatically display so the advertiser has all the information and data necessary to make the decision.

What is an OGG File and Is It Suitable For Podcasts

By the way, an OGG format is a high quality sound file with clean streaming easily for streaming.

How Much Can Podcasters Be Paid To Play Audio Commercials On Their Shows?

The new commercial marketplace on the World Podcast Network will have limited inventory for each commercial to be played and each commercial will pay between $5 to $10 USD for each commercial play. Advertisers will pay for a specific number of spots and those spots will be inventory for podcasters to apply for their shows to play the commercials. For example, if the advertiser purchases 10 spots, then up to 10 podcasters can apply to play those commercials. Podcasts that are of Professional level will be paid $15 to $20 USD per commercial. There will be no limit to the number of commercials that podcasters can play, but each commercial can only be applied for once per podcast. Once the advertisement has been played, the podcaster can re-apply for a second one.

How Important Is Audience Retention On A Podcast In Order For A Podcaster To Succeed?

Very important. We cannot stress this enough. Audience retention affects your ratings on platforms like Apple Podcasts (iTunes). Potential advertisers can see your ratings and may decide whether or not to advertise with you and accept your applications based on the 1 to 5 star ratings. A well-produced podcast will result in higher audience retention and ratings. Audiences need to stay engaged every second of the podcast episode. It only takes a second for an audience member to drop off because of music that may be too loud, the hosts or guest being hard to hear, or boring out of date content.

How Do You Keep A Podcast Audience Engaged?

We always found that in order to keep audiences engaged, hosts need to speak to the audience and not just to themselves of their guests. Ask the audience questions and to answer them in the comments. Present a special piece of content that would be available only to your subscribers. Talk about their fears and concerns and show them that your podcast is only a place to listen, but also a community where people can find answers. Your podcast episode titles can ask questions and some of those questions may end up being featured snippets on Google where your non-audience members can search for answers to your questions. It only takes one great episode to hook the audience to become your audience.

In Conclusion

At the World Podcast Network, we understand that podcasters want to make money for their hard work on their podcasts. This is a new era in podcasting that we are helping to accomplish on our own podcast network. Our job is to help you podcast grow and find the right audience, because once you have the right audience, everything else false into place from becoming a famous podcast and of course monetizing it.

Connecting Podcasts with Listeners & Subscribers From All Over the World!